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Plains-Dweller
The plains-dweller, Homo campis fabricatus is a dark-colored troll-like species of human in 500 years that fills in the niches left behind by grassland-dwelling ungulates. Their teeth may get worn down from chewing and eating grass (digesting it with special bacteria in the stomach) and leaves, but these teeth will regrow repeatedly for as long as an individual plains-dweller lives. It is human engineered to live on open grasslands needs the adaptations of a grass-eating mammal. For the plains-dweller these include massive teeth that are replaced if they wear out chewing tough silica-rich grasses and, more importantly, a specialized stomach within the bloated abdomen containing engineered bacteria that can break down cellulose (a substance not normally digestible by the human frame). Cutting edges on the hands help to scythe the thick grass while the long legs enable the creature to move swiftly over the open landscape. By 1,000 years The hazy grassland stretches away, green and yellow, to infinity, and a herd of grazing plains-dwellers moves gracefully across it. There are about 20 of them, the adults moving along on the outside of the group, with the youngsters in the center. This is some sort of instinctive arrangement, serving no real purpose, as there are no dangerous animals to defend against. They have no real speech, these creatures, since all their needs are simple and amply met. Food grows all around, there are no enemies, and they have the companionship of their own kind. Towering clouds are building up overhead. The plains-dwellers are aware, but only dimly, that conditions are changing from year to year. There seems to be more rain than there used to be, but this no problem. It only means that the grass (their food) grows more prolifically. It also means that new types of plants are beginning to grow: saplings that will develop into bushes and trees. Still, there will be plenty of grass left for them. As they move slowly through the waving leaves and stems, they become aware of a distant humming noise. Looking up, their leader sees an oval spiky shape floating above the horizon away to one side. Such things go over now and again, but they have no effect on the plains-dwellers, who barely notice them. However, this one is different. It is not pursuing its usual straight unwavering course but seems to be tilting to one side and descending in a very irregular manner. This is unusual enough for the herd's leader to stop and look at it, as does the rest of the herd. The shape wobbles, and finally drops into the plain some distance away. Immediately it is engulfed in a white flash that fades into a billowing red and black ball, rising and spreading. A little time later, the explosion is heard as the sound sweeps across the open countryside, and the infants and parents alike start in alarm, but feel no fear. The leader, however, does see the danger. The burst of red has spread as a fire across the landscape and it is coming towards them. He has seen this before (fires are commonplace on the grasslands), and is knowledgeable enough not to run away from it when it is sweeping towards the herd. He assesses the direction of the wind and moves his herd along at right-angles to it, so that the fire will eventually travel by them. He need not have troubled. The clouds that have been building up throughout the afternoon now open, and a curtain of torrential rain appears between the herd and the fire drifting over them and soaking them instantly. By the time the downpour has passed nothing is left of the fire but a steaming black smudge on the distant landscape. The erstwhile flying shape is steaming and black as well, but the plains-dwellers ignore it and continue their journey. It has nothing to do with them. By 2,000 years Temperate Woodlands-Dwellers have become predators of the plains-dwellers. By 5,000 years The plains-dwellers become the migrants as the climate begins to shift. The lost fruits of tropical tree-dwellers, dented and bruised by their fall through the branches, at last thump softly down into the decaying plant matter of the forest soil. A group of gaunt long-legged migrants, uneasy and out of place in this strange environment, but driven from their grasslands by increasing cold and ravening packs of temperate woodland-dwellers, starts at the sudden noise. Then, when they see the fruit that has fallen, all four of them pounce upon it, scratching and tearing at one another in their attempts to reach it first. By 10,000 years Rain falls. It now falls for long periods and the grasslands are losing their character. Instead of one short rainy season in the year followed by long periods of dryness, there is now more rain all year round. The grasses thrived under the old conditions. Their tops were shriveled off by the sun, grazed away by animals and burned by periodic bushfires, but they survived because of their protected underground stems, and grew again from ground level. Few trees or bushes flourished under these conditions, but the migrants also did well here. Their exclusive diet of grass meant that they could live here where no other large creature lived. They could spend the dry seasons in the thorn thickets that bordered the grasslands and separated them from the humid tropical forests of the Equator, and they migrated out over the grasslands proper during the wet season, feeding as they went. Other large creatures could not cope with this existence. Now, with the more frequent rains, the thorn forest is spreading over the plains, and trees are growing where once there was only grass. With the new conditions different creatures, ones that hunt meat for food, are creeping out of the tropical forests. More and more often the migrants have to take themselves off out of danger. With their immensely long legs they can quickly outpace any enemy, but this is becoming more and more frequent. It is wasting a great deal of energy and eroding valuable eating time. Over the past few thousand years the migrants have faced problems like this, many times. Sometimes, when it seemed as if the grasslands were going to disappear, herds of them went through the thorn thickets and into the depths of the great rainforests, in the hope of finding new pasture. None ever returned. Few went the other way, where the grasses became shorter and sparser, where food became harder and harder to find, and where even small creatures became rarer and more difficult to see. The grasses in this direction eventually gave way to rocky and sandy wastes, where the rainy season was even shorter and less reliable than it was on the plains. In these previous times of crisis, however, the problem was never long-lived: the grasslands established themselves once more. Now, with the increased rainfall, the grasses as the migrants knew them are becoming obliterated by thorn forest. The only reliable expanses of grass seem now to be found in the once-desert areas, and even these un-beckoning wastes are changing because of the increased moisture. Grasses and low plants are finding purchase in the harsh rocky soil that once they found uninhabitable. Perhaps in this direction lies the future home of the lanky plains-dwellers/migrants. By 50,000 years They become the Communal Plains-Dwellers. Notable individuals * Gram, a young, 10-year-old male from 500 years who had, after being born and raised in a laboratory, been dropped off by his Homo sapiens masters on a dusty plain. At first he was shivering not from temperature, but from apprehension. He had been introduced to a diet of grass and other foliage during his stay with Family a group of Homo sapiens that saw to his every need and trained him for life outside). Soon realizing that this was his own new life to take advantage of, out on the grassy plains, he tore off the little instruments that were strapped to various parts of his body that sent back signals, telling Family how he is performing. Once he removed them, he was free. * Larn, a male tribe leader from 2,000 years who defends his family against an attacking temperate woodland-dweller. Ever since temperate woodland-dwellers began to establish themselves in other habitats, they had become to prime predators of Earth so far. Now Larn and his kin have a natural enemy to fear. He eventually defeats the attacker (after it had killed a female plains-dweller) by a reflex, bringing down the cutting edge of his left hand, thrusting it into the soft flesh of the woodland-dweller's neck, killing it instantly. In triumph, Larn learned that these creatures are not invulnerable. Suddenly, another temperate woodland-dweller lunged onto his back, sinking its teeth into his neck, and as he fell into the dust he realized his mistake. He should have ran, like the young females of his kind had been doing. He is then killed. Category:Man After Man species Category:Future Humanoids Category:Mammals Category:Primates Category:Animals Category:Placentals